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On today's RetailWire , there is a discussion about Dominick's new "Just for U" coupon program (free registration required). The Discussion Questions were: "Is Dominick's on the right track with its Just for U program? In offering deals based on past purchases, is the chain missing other sales opportunities?" Here is my response: Counter-intuitively, we often find that giving shoppers targeted discounts on products they already buy generates remarkable lift, both for the basket as a whole and for the promoted items. As a result, we encourage retailers and manufacturers to include "reward-style" coupons and "win-back" coupons as part of any targeted promotion campaign.For Dominick's, then, I see this as a smart move. Shoppers who feel that they are being rewarded in a targeted way will spend more in the store and more on the promoted items. This can benefit both in terms of expandable-consumption categories (people eat more snacks when they are in the house), and in terms of reclaimed trips vs. competing channels (drug, warehouse, dollar stores, etc.) and grocery chains.For me, the real question will be: how well does Dominick's execute on this program? One or two middling offers every other week will rapidly disenchant the consumer, and will therefore have no appreciable impact on sales. On the other hand, a steady stream of easily-accessible, targeted, high-value offers (chain-funded, brand-funded, or both) will keep shoppers engaged and coming back for more.A quick glance at Dominick's website already raises a red flag. When you log in, there are 3 different places to get coupons. If you log into the Coupon Center, you have to navigate through 9 pages of offers to find the ones that you care about. Add to that the 'Just for U' offers and the 'Your Club Specials' sections (as well as the digital circular for non-coupon deals), and you can see why a shopper would get exhausted trying to find the offers they want. Dominick's should integrate these different coupon and discount sources into a single, consolidated, personalized, relevance-sorted list - this would give shoppers a huge win, and would be a major competitive differentiator.You can find all of my RetailWire BrainTrust comments on my RetailWire blog .

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